Hydrocarbon motor



H. P. DUULITTLE,

HYDROCARBON MOTOR.

APPUCANON msu FEB. 16, mw.

1,42%2394, fatened Aug: L 1922,

HENRY DOOLITTLE, 0F DETRBIT,

MCMGM, LSSIGER T0 FACKARD MOTOR. CAR

CGMPANY, 0F DETRUIT, EHCHIGAN, .Z-l. CURPOMTIGN F MICHIGN.

HYDROCARBN MOTOR.

Y Specicatlon of Letters Patent.

rareniea nag., i., ieee.

Application filed February 16, i929. Serial No. 359,026.

To all Awhom it lmay concern.'

Be it known that l', HENRY P. DooLrT'rLn, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Detroit, lliayne County, State of ll/lichigan, have invented certain new and .useful improvements in Hydrocarbon `llllotors, of which the following is a specification.

T his invention relates to hydrocarbon motors, and particularly to motor control and motor heating and mixture heating means.

'lhis invention has torl its salient object the provision of means and apparatus lor improving the operation of hydrocarbon motors with the presentv low grade or'l i'uels, and the still lower grades that will undouhte edly be required to be used in motors or this type. J

"With these lower grades o'uel it is desirable that the mixture passing to the motor shall be heated so that the less volatile parts of the liquidv fuel will become vaporized, and, if possible, formed into a dry gas. lf the mixture is heated at or near the carburetor, it sometimes happens in the starting of a cold motor that considerable condensation of the mixture takesplace be- Jfore it reaches the cylinder, due, of course, to the cold walls of the intake pipe and of the cylinder-itself. Y

Another object of the present invention is to insure the heating of the walls of the intake conduit and of the cylinder previous to the admission to said conduit and cylinder of the mixture for the motor.

ln the use of preheaters for the motor mixture, it is sometimes found desirable to throw a heater out of action after the motor has been heated up to a predetermined degree, as thereafter the heat of the motor is ample to vaporize the fuel to the extent necessary for good combustion.

Another object vof the invention is to automatically provide for this situation and cut out the preheating of the mixture at a predetermined heat of the motor.

Other and important objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the drawings which form a part oi' this specification, and in which- Figure l is a side elevation and part sec tional view of a hydrocarbon motor embodyingthe invention; and

igure 2 is a detail showingsome oi the operating parts in another position.

Reiterring to the drawings, l0 represents a motor cylinder or cylinder block, ll is an intake conduit connected to the cylinder, and l2 is an exhaust conduit adapted to receive the exhaust gases from. the cylinder in the usual way.

The vertical'supply branch of the conduit ll4 is indicated at i8, and at its lower end a carburetor la is connected. ln the passage or conduit i3 is the usual throttle valve l5, which may he manually operated as by a rod i6. 'lhis throttle valve is shown in its closed position, and it will be seen that it is cracked open as at 17 to permit the passage or a small quantity of mixture for idling the motor. rlhis is the usual ar rangement oi motor throttle valves, and by such valve it is impossible to cut mi entirely the supply of mixture to the motor.

second throttle valve 18 is arranged in series with-the throttle valve l5, and in the form shown is mounted just below it. ThisY throttle valve diers from the valve 15 in that it is arranged to completely close the passage 13 when it is in the position shown in full lines. 'lhis throttle valve i8 may be moved from its closed position to the open position indicated in dotted lines, as by a link i9. a bell crank 20, a link 21, and a bell crank 22, the latter of which is support` ed on a bracket 23 on the motor adjacent the exhaust pipe l2. @ne arm. or" the bell crank 22 is actuated by the movable rod 2l of a thermostat 25, which may be oi any Vsuitable form and is shownhas mounted in Til the exhaust pipe l2 above Areferred to so that i it is acted upon by the heat exhausting from the motor cylinders. Thus it will be seen that when the thermostat 25 is cold, as shown in full lines in the drawing, the throttlc valve 18 will he Y position. llVhen the heat of the exhaust causes the thermostat 25 to expand, the rod 2l will move outwardly or downwardly, as shown in Figure 2, and thus, through the coections described, move ,the throttle valve i8 to the dotted line or full open position as shown in Figure 1. Therefore, when the motor is cold, it is obvious that the throttle valve i8 will completely close the passage 13 and no mixture can pass to the motor until some heat has been supplied 'to the exhaust pipe l2 to expand the therinostat 25. 'lhe means forsupplying such heat will now hedescribed.

in the full line, or closed iio A preheater or combustion heater is illustrated in the form of a chamber or acket 26 surrounding a part of the intake passage 13, and this chamber is supplied with mixture either from the main carburetor 14 or from an auxiliary carburetor 2T shown in the drawings. The outlet from the chamber 26 is through one or more small openings 28 directly into the intake passage'13 above the two throttle valves, or between said throttle valves and the motor cylinder, so that the suction ofthe motor, when the latter is in operation either under its own power or by some external power, such as an electric starting motor, is always communicated to the chamber 2 6. Of course when the valves 15 and 18 are both open, the suction through the chamber 26 is not so great because the shorter and more direct route from theatmosphere is through the passage 13, but when said valves are closed, or nearly so, there is considerable suction through the .chamber26 and it is. fully supplied with mixturefor heating purposes.

The mixture in the chamber 26 is ignited by a spark plug 29 which may be supplied with suitable high tension current from any suitable source, such as that diagrammatically illustrated in Figure 1. Thus it will be understood that one of the electrodes of the spark plug 29 is grounded on the motor and the other electrode is connected to the secondary 30 of an induction coil, the primary .31 of which is connected on one side to a battery 32 and on the other side to ground through a contact maker 33 which may be operated in any suitable Way from a moving part of the motor. The other side of the battery 32 is grounded through a connector 34, but this ground lconnection may be broken by the thermostatically operated rod 24 above described. lVhen the rod 24 is in the position shown in Figure 1, a contact maker 35 thereon connects the terminals 36 in the connector 34 so that said connector is grounded as shown, but when the thermostat 25 moves the rod 24 to its full outer position, as shown in Figure 2, the contact maker 35 breaks the connection between the terminals 36 so that the connector 34 does not reach ground. This will, ofcourse, stop the supply of current to the spark plug 29 and the latter will cease to operate, and, of

course, this occurs only when the heat inthe exhaust Ipipe 12 as reached such predetermined degree that it is desirable not to have any additional heat supplied from the combustion chamber hereinabove described.

In operation, it will be seen that if the motor is started from cold, the throttle valve 1 8 will be in full closed position, and regardless of the position of the manually operated throttle valve 15. no mixture can reach the cylinders, and, therefore, no explosion will take place therein. There will be a high suction, however, through the chamber 26 as the motor is turned over by its starting motor, and the mixture will be ignited by the spark plug 29 and the burnt gases will pass through the opening 28 into the intake conduit 11 and through the intake valves of the motor to the interior of the cylinder. The hot gases will, therefore,- heat thewalls of the intake pipe 11 and the cylinder and pass out through the exhaust valves of the motor into the exhaust pipe 12. After the motor has thus operated a yshort time, theheat passing through it will act upon the thermostat 25 and through its connections to the throttle valve 18 and the latter will beopened, thus permitting mixture from the carburetor 14 to be drawn upwardly through the passage 13 to the motor. At this time the throttle valve 15 -will be opened a little more than shown in thedrawing so that enough of the mixture may pass to supply a good charge to the cylinders.

At the same time it Vwill be understood that the combustion heater 26 will continue to operate and as the mixture for the motor passes upwardly through the conduit 13 it will be heated' by the combustion heater itselfand by the .burnt gases which will pass into it, and this heated mixture will pass to the motor cylinders where it will be ignited in the usual way.

It will be understood that by thus preheating the walls ot' the intake conduit and of the cylinder, when the mixture finally reaches those walls there will be no tendency lto condense it and the operation of the motor will be good from the very first shot in the cylinders.

After the motor is thus started, thev temperature in the exhaust pipe 12 will con. tinue to rise andvat a predetermined point the operation of the spark plug 29 will be cut out and the combustion heater will thuS cease to function. At this point the motor will be sufficiently hot to itself vaporize the fuel to the extent needed. y

A specific embodiment of the invention has been described in detail and Will be specifically claimed, but it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown, as it will he apparent that changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor having an exhaust conduit, of a combustion chamber adapted to discharge burnt gas through the motor into said conduit, and means acted upon bythe heat of said conduit for controlling combustion in said chamber.

ing said spark plug Lacasse 2. Ina hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinderand inlet and outlet conduits therefor, of a combustion chamber adapted to discharge into said inlet and thereby heat the cylinder and its outlet conduit, and means acted upon by the heat in said outlet conduit lfor controlling combustion' in said chamber.

3. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder and inlet and outlet conduits therefor, of a combustion heater adapted to discharge into said inlet conduit, a spark plug for s'aid heater, means for causto operate, a thermostat connected to said outlet conduit, and connections from said thermostat for controlling said spark plug operating means.

4. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination witha motor cylinder and an inlet conduit therefor, of two throttle valves in series in said conduit, means permitting manual operation of one of said valves, and thermostatic means connected to operate the other of said valves.

5. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder and an inlet conduit therefor, of two throttle valves in series in said conduit, means permitting manual operation of one of said valves, a thermostat acted upon by the heat of the motor, and connections from said thermostat to the other of said throttle valves.

6. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder, of vmeans for supplying heat to the cylinder independently of 'explosions therein, and means for automatically starting the feeding of mixture to the motor after a predetermined heat of the motor has been reached.

7 In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder and means for completely cutting oil' the intake thereof, of means for supplying heat to said m'otor cylinder independently of the explosions therein, and heat controlled means for opening said mixture cutting oil' means after the motor has reached a predetermined heat.`

8. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder having an inlet conduit, -Of throttleV valves in series in said conduit, a combustion heater discharging into said conduit above said throttle valves, electric means for igniting the mixture in ysaiddieater, and thermostatic means for controlling said electric means and one of said throttle valves.

Sr In a hydrocarbon motor, the combinationwvith a motor cylinder and a combustion heater, of thermostatic means for controlling the operation of said heater and for controlling the intake of combustible mixture to said motor.

10. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a motor cylinder having inlet and outlet conduits. of a throttle valve in the inlet conduit, and means acted upon by the heat of the outlet conduit for controlling said throttle valve.

In testimony whereof vI aixm si ature. HENRY P. Y gn DOOIJITTLE. 

